quickness in writing, if nature has not stimulated them to acquire these
accomplishments in the given number of years, they should let alone. And
as to the learning of compositions committed to writing which are not
set to the lyre, whether metrical or without rhythmical divisions,
compositions in prose, as they are termed, having no rhythm or
harmony--seeing how dangerous are the writings handed down to us by
many writers of this class--what will you do with them, O most excellent
guardians of the law? or how can the lawgiver rightly direct you about
them? I believe that he will be in great difficulty.

CLEINIAS: What troubles you, Stranger? and why are you so perplexed in
your mind?

ATHENIAN: You naturally ask, Cleinias, and to you and Megillus, who are
my partners in the work of legislation, I must state the more difficult
as well as the easier parts of the task.

CLEINIAS: To what do you refer in this instance?

ATHENIAN: I will tell you. There is a difficulty in opposing many
myriads of mouths.

CLEINIAS: Well, and have we not already opposed the popular voice in
many important enactments?

ATHENIAN: That is quite true; and you mean to imply that the road which
we are taking may be disagreeable to some but is agreeable to as many
others, or if not to as many, at any rate to persons not inferior to
the others, and in company with them you bid me, at whatever risk,
to proceed along the path of legislation which has opened out of our
present discourse, and to be of good cheer, and not to faint.

CLEINIAS: Certainly.

ATHENIAN: And I do not faint; I say, indeed, that we have a great many
poets writing in hexameter, trimeter, and all sorts of measures--some
who are serious, others who aim only at raising a laugh--and all mankind
declare that the youth who are rightly educated should be brought up in
them and saturated with them; some insist that they should be constantly
hearing them read aloud, and always learning them, so as to get by heart
entire poets; while others select choice passages and long speeches,
and make compendiums of them, saying that these ought to be committed to
memory, if a man is to be made good and wise by experience and learning
of many things. And you want me now to tell them plainly in what they
are right and in what they are wrong.

CLEINIAS: Yes, I do.

ATHENIAN: But how can I in one word rightly comprehend all of them? I
am of opinion, and, if I am not mistaken, there is a gen